Arts Brookfield Honored for Exceptional Cultural Programming by Americans for the Arts

Join us in congratulating our proud ISPA member Arts Brookfield on being honored as 2014 BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America.

“For 25 years Arts Brookfield has ‘set art free’ for the public with cultural experiences at Brookfield’s premier properties throughout the world. It’s an honor to be recognized for this work and to join the ranks of other innovative companies," said Debra Simon, Vice President and Artistic Director of Arts Brookfield.

Below is the full press release distributed by Arts Brooksfield last month.

Brookfield Property Partners has been named by the Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, as one of the BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America for 2014. For 25 years, Brookfield, through its cultural arm Arts Brookfield, has presented hundreds of exciting, world-class cultural experiences for free to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including Brookfield properties in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston and Perth.

Each year the Business Committee for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, recognizes ten U.S. companies for their exceptional commitment to the arts through grants, local partnerships, volunteer programs, matching gifts, sponsorships and board membership. The BCA 10 Awards was presented by Americans for the Arts on October 1, 2014, at a black-tie gala at the Central Park Boathouse in New York City (Photo on the right: Debra Simon, VP and Artistic Director at Arts Brookfield, Robert Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, Elysa Marden, Producing Director at Arts Brookfield. The Loeb Boathouse Central Park, October 1st, 2014).

“We are thrilled to be honored by Americans for the Arts for our efforts to enhance the communities where our buildings are located by creating and activating inviting, grand public spaces,” said Debra Simon, Vice President and Artistic Director of Arts Brookfield. “For 25 years Arts Brookfield has ‘set art free’ for the public with cultural experiences at Brookfield’s premier properties throughout the world. It’s an honor to be recognized for this work and to join the ranks of other innovative companies.”

“I am once again pleased to celebrate such an impressive array of BCA 10 honorees that span business size, industry and geographic locations,” said Robert Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Each year, the BCA 10 sets the standard for other businesses by upholding the arts as an integral part of office culture, the community, and the local economy. Through financial and in-kind support, employee volunteer hours, and workplace arts initiatives, these businesses ensure arts access for current and future generations, in addition to serving as successful and inspiring models of business arts support.”

For over 25 years, Arts Brookfield has brought public spaces to life at Brookfield’s premier properties throughout the world. Highlights include:

Scrounge: An Earth Day Celebration at Republic Plaza in Denver, 2014. Featuring a diverse assemblage of work by 26 artists who scrounge – those who love the hunt for rejected objects of all shapes, sizes and materials and then, in the most creative ways, reconstruct them to present a work of art.

A New Visual Vocabulary: Developments in Texas Modernism from 1935-1965 at Allen Center in Houston, 2014. Highlighting the work from diverse artists who changed the aesthetic landscape in Texas, where modernism thrived from 1935 – 1965 and artists drew literal and metaphoric inspiration form the land, while others abandoned any semblance of mimetic representation.

Human Fountain by STREB (part of Extraordinary Moves) at Brookfield Place in New York, 2011. Inspired by the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, Human Fountain involved performers leaping from as high as 30 feet from a three- story, honeycomb-shaped structure in order to create cascades of airborne, liquid muscle. The outcome is a mixture of slam dancing, exquisite and amazing human flight, and wild action sport which capture the public’s hearts, minds, and bodies.

A Material World by Heidi Duckler Dance Company (Collage Dance Theater) at FIGat7th in Los Angeles, 2009. Created in a seven-week site-specific residency, this public art project culminated in a dance performance of “liquid architecture” that stretched two hundred feet of bright blue fabric and ten dancers throughout the topography of the FIGat7th shopping complex.

21 Pianos (part of 88 Keys) at Brookfield Place in New York, 2003. Twenty-one state-of-the-art Italian Fazioli pianos graced the steps of the Winter Garden of the US premiere of the masterful and complex Sinfonia Nos. 1 and 2 for 21 Pianos, written by contemporary composer Daniele Lombardi.

“The outstanding and acclaimed work of Arts Brookfield over the past quarter century embodies Brookfield’s vision of creating progressive workplaces and our commitment to developing thriving communities,” said Paul L. Schulman, President and Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Commercial Operations, Brookfield Property Partners. “We are proud to be recognized by Americans for the Arts and look forward to many more years of invigorating public spaces with great art.”

Last October, to celebrate its 25th Anniversary, Arts Brookfield launched Art Set Free, an unprecedented global arts showcase that raises awareness about the importance of free public art while offering artists of any level the opportunity to have their work seen by millions worldwide. Through Art Set Free, Arts Brookfield hopes to engage the global arts community and encourage artists working in any genre to make the world their stage and set their own art free. Since its launch, Art Set Free has collected nearly 25,000 pieces of sound, visual and performance art from more than 2,500 artists in more than 100 countries and 800 cities worldwide.

“Public arts can change the perception of the architecture, enabling people to experience space in a new way,” Simon continued. “We hope Art Set Free will increase awareness about the important role cultural experiences and art play in creating communities while giving artists exposure to an enormous amount of people who might not otherwise experience the work.”

Arts Brookfield presents exciting, world-class cultural experiences to hundreds of thousands of people for free each year in both indoor and outdoor public spaces at Brookfield’s premier office properties in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, Toronto, Perth and Sydney. From concerts, theater and dance to film screenings and art exhibitions, Arts Brookfield brings public spaces to life through art. Through December 2014, Arts Brookfield celebrates its 25th Anniversary through an interactive initiative, Art Set Free. The public is invited to submit original artworks of all kinds for digital display at Brookfield’s office properties around the globe and on www.ArtsBrookfield25.com. Americans for the Arts has named Brookfield one of the ten Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America.